I read this wrongly at first and thought the writer had blown $4,000,000 on a single customer complaint. This somehow made me quite happy and I was ready to splurge some words on a well upholstered article about how a single crappy customer can bring down your whole company and why you should really leave people to their own devices. Then I realised I'd got the wrong end of the stick, which is probably why my customer service doesn't tend to make any money for anyone.

I've put another story up in the Stories section. Here's the official blurb that accompanies it:

Nice Legs is a piece I like a lot - it's fast moving, funny and slightly icky. However, it also serves as a lesson in the perils of topical writing. When I first wrote it the Olympics were in full swing and those nightmarish mascots were everywhere. Now a few months have passed and I can hardly remember what they looked like. By this time next year we'll have forgotten all about them. Except that they were slightly icky.

I now listen to more podcasts than music. I don't know what this says about me but I doubt listening to recordings of science fiction stories is one of the tell tale signs of a cosmopolitan free-wheeler.

But it's not all people in Phoenix bedrooms talking about zombie elves - some of those podcasts are quite professional. Some of them actually are professional, like this one, the BBC Drama Of The Week.

It's not always fantastic, but it's very rarely appalling and that's a good enough hit rate for me. Now I wonder if they'd be interested in my zombie elf trilogy...